COVID19 Tips

This is an unprecedented time that has aroused great anxiety and overwhelm for many of us. Some of us are working at home while parenting our restive children, others of us are suddenly without work. The only people whose lives are better are dogs. They must be so happy that we are staying home with them!

In times of plague and pestilence, knowledge is power, rumours are rife. Please follow the guidance of your county, state and federal public health officials with regard to personal hygiene and social distancing. The purpose of such measures, drastic though they may seem, is to flatten the curve of illness so our hospitals and ICUs don’t become overwhelmed. Doctors in Italy were faced with the heart-wrenching task of choosing who should live and who should die. If we flatten the curve with strict measures now, we may avoid that same situation.

 We of the boomer generation are active and involved, we tend not to see ourselves as elderly or vulnerable, yet to this virus, we are. So are healthcare workers, people with HIV, transplant recipients, cancer survivors, rheumatology patients, diabetics, individuals with high blood pressure—the list goes on. All of us need to pull together to protect the vulnerable among us.

One rumour I have encountered—and most likely you have as well—is a viral post/email purporting to come from ‘Japanese Doctors’ or ‘a friend who works in the CDC’ or some such ‘reverse plagiarism.’ This post makes a variety of claims that might seem plausible to those without medical training. For example, it indicates that if you keep sipping water, you won’t get infected because ‘your stomach acid will digest the virus.’ If viruses were vulnerable to stomach acid, there would have been no polio, no Hepatitis A, no viral encephalitis…the list goes on. Many viruses are transmitted by the fecal-oral route, and novel coronavirus is thought to be in this category. Viruses, bacteria and parasites figured out human stomach acid millennia ago.

This same viral post also claims that you can self-check for novel coronavirus by seeing whether you can take a deep breath and implies that the virus is silently fibrosing your lungs. Some severe cases of COVID19 do get pulmonary fibrosis but it is not the norm. And the only way you can check for COVD19 is to take a test. Since testing is not ramped up, please stay home if you are sick. This advice should always be in force during ‘flu season!

Another meme of disinformation I have encountered is that only 20% of those who get the virus will get sick. Correction: as far as we can see, 80% get a light case (still often quite a nasty illness), while 20% will need to be hospitalized. And as many as a third of these will need to be in ICU. This is how the healthcare system gets overwhelmed.

And no, it’s not just ‘flu. True, there is a high annual death toll from ‘flu each year, largely because we don’t stay home when we are sick. But about 30-40 million annually get ‘flu in the US. If 40 million got COVID19, we’d have a massive death toll and a collapsing healthcare system. It is much more dangerous and much more infectious.

As for the theory ‘catch it now to build herd immunity,’ well, the UK government just did a U-turn on this notion. Nobody even knows if we can get permanent immunity the way we can to measles. Quite likely not, because the virus will keep on mutating.

So keep social distancing—if the French and Italians can do it, surely we can. And take your information from trustworthy sources such as this blog, the (actual!) CDC https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html, and the WHO https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus.

The most important Ayurvedic health advice—when hungry, eat; when thirsty, drink; when tired, go to sleep.  Get fresh air, exercise and rest and stay connected, albeit virtually, with those you love.

 Let’s reach out to the lonely and isolated. There’s every danger that in trying to fight novel coronavirus we could cause a spike in elder suicides. Instead of hoarding, let’s give to food banks, so the most vulnerable can eat. And remember, we are only as healthy as the least-served among us.  As long as nations like the DRC or Chad can scarcely provide healthcare to their populations, we are all in danger. As long as refugees live in unsanitary conditions in overcrowded refugee camps, none of us is safe. All they are asking for is a chance for safety and a better life. As long as a million Syrians live in the most inhuman circumstances on the Turkey-Syria border, our efforts at enhancing global health will be seeds sown on stony ground. Please donate to charities such as https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/. And if you can, help us in our effort to raise $1,000 for the Syrian American Medical Society. https://www.sams-usa.net/ You can go ahead and donate directly and let us know by email.

 Alakananda Ma M.B., B.S. (Lond.) is an Ayurvedic Doctor (NAMA) and graduate of a top London medical school. She is co-founder of Alandi Ayurveda Clinic and Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula in Boulder Colorado, as well as a spiritual mother, teacher, flower essence maker and storyteller. Alakananda is a well known and highly respected practitioner in the Ayurveda community both nationally and internationally.

Enliven your holistic health! Visit Alakananda Ma in Alandi Ashram’s ayurvedic clinic to support the overall rejuvenation of your body, mind, and spirit. In-person and virtual appointments available. Book now!